Exodus International president Alan Chambers has a new book out, called simply Leaving Homosexuality. Typically, books like this come and go with little mention in the LGBT blogosphere, but this one appears to have caught a few people by surprise, namely because of this passage from Cambers’ second chapter:

When I was first starting out in ministry and sharing my testimony, I often heard the comment from gay individuals and activists, “You’re just in denial, Alan.” That comment always incensed me because it seemed to negate my message and intelligence. However, as I began to pray about it, I realized that we, as Christians, are indeed called to a life of denial, and as such I should not despise something the Lord commands of me nor should I get angry when someone calls me on it. Those who reject the concept of self-denial haven’t reaped the joys that result from it.

…Every day for more than a decade, I have made denial, as Jesus taught in this verse, the major focus of my morning prayer time. I am keenly aware that I am prone to blowing it in this area of my life and am, therefore, in desperate need of help. … And you know what? I love my life of denial.

CitizenLink: Now, I\’ve heard it, and you\’ve heard it: Gay activists are going to read that and say, again, “Alan Chambers is living a lie. He\’s suppressing who he really is.” You make a great point in the book that is very applicable to anyone who struggles with any temptation—and that is, self-denial isn\’t a bad thing. How do you respond to those who say you\’re just living a lie?

CHAMBERS: For so long I\’ve heard gay activists say to me, “You\’re just in denial. You\’re not grasping the reality of the situation. You\’re just denying who you really are.” The truth is, I am in denial, but it is self-denial. I\’m not in denial of who I used to be. I\’m not in denial of the temptations that I could still experience. I am denying the power that sin has over me.

This has certainly gotten a lot of attention. Queerty and Dan Savage have both commented on this, among many others. Dan Gilgoff, at US News and World Report, wonders of this is the start of a new consensus between gays and religious conservatives. Unfortunately, he appears to have misread the statement as “shift away from promoting conversion therapy.”

For those who may mistake this as a new position that will somehow remake Exodus, it’s important to gain a historical perspective. Longtime readers of Box Turtle Bulletin may remember that this “new” line isn’t so new. As I reported two years ago, Alan Chambers said essentially the exact same words at a workshop he gave at Love Won Out. Later that year, I made a video in which you get to hears a small audio clip of Chambers making that statement:

When I attended the Exodus Freedom Conference in Irvine, California later that summer, I heard Alan give almost precisely that same talk on the opening night of that five-day conference. That was the same summer when Alan Chambers told the Los Angeles Times that he had never met a successful ex-gay.

Those who may be tempted to believe they detect a shifting position are mistaken. Chambers had staked this position out as early as two years ago, and he may have been exploring that theme even earlier. But despite that, we’ve seen little change on Exodus’ work in opposing equal protections and other public policy initiatives against gays and lesbians who choose not to pursue change. Exodus has turned the phrase, “Change is possible” into a mantra. But that doesn’t mean that change is likely from Exodus.

This is pretty consistent with the religious right’s general view of sexual orientation. They don’t mind that we’re gay, just as long as we don’t have gay relationships and gay sex. For them, it’s totally reasonable to expect us to date members of the opposite sex for whom we lack feeling or to just remain celibate altogether, while heterosexuals can have satisfying romantic and sexual lives.

This is also why they insist they’re not homophobic even as they condemn us as “immoral.” It’s not wrong for us to be attracted to members of the same sex, just to act on those attractions.

It’s bullshit, of course, like saying people can be Christian, just as long as they don’t pray or go to church and keep their beliefs in the closet. But I think the underlying issue causing a lot of homophobia is the morbid sexual repression that is the legacy of the Abrahamic religions.

It’s the standard doublespeak. They get so used to talking out of both sides of their mouths that they stop noticing that they’re doing it. “Change is possible.” But there are no ex-gays, only people struggling with same sex attraction. But you said change was possible. Oh, no…I meant change of Behavior…

I’m no fan of John Derbyshire, but he did go on a good tear of the creationists in one column, calling them out for their shifty behavior. But that’s a necessary characteristic of any system of belief that elevates its own dogmas above observable fact. When you constantly have to tell yourself that what you know to be true from your own personal experience, isn’t, then mendacity becomes just another part of your daily life. When Morality consists of telling yourself hundreds of little lies every day, just to get through the day, turning a false face to your neighbor stops seeming wrong. The false face you give to your neighbor is the only one you have to know yourself by.

They speak of sin and the fall of civilizations when moral values collapse. But societies rise or fail on the mutual trust and respect of their members. As Jacob Bronowski said (paraphrasing), The state of mind, the state of society, is of a piece. When you discard the test of fact in what a star is, you discard in it also what a human being is. Alan isn’t denying his homosexuality. He’s denying his humanity. There’s your fall of western civilization, right there.

I’m relieved. I didn’t get what the change was (subtle or not) in Chambers’ latest book, and I was starting to wonder what others thought they were seeing. I’m one of those intuitive types and I sometimes miss the obvious. Thanks for posting this.

There is no credible psychologist or medical doctor that will agree that INVOLUNTARY, or coercive sexual repression is healthy.
Homosexuality, is an exclusive behavior to gay people, but all the other standard concepts around relationships, sex, consent and responsibility are not.

Repressed heterosexuals are not healthy people either. The frustrating thing for me, is the distortion and contradictions against gay people as being as human and needful as heterosexuals.
It’s cruel double speak AND double standards. On the one hand saying that sex is important, healthy and SHOULD be channeled and encouraged into commitment and monogamy through marriage and social support, and on the other forcing or insisting that gay people are healthier and happier WITHOUT any of it.

Or even worse, telling the lie that gay people are incapable of doing any of that, so therefore support isn’t necessary or even damaging to their lives and that of extended society.

AJD is right. It is BS. Dangerous BS.
As for the broad definition of ‘struggling’ with homosexuality, while denying struggling with the dominant culture to be so recognized as human and biologically legitimate, makes me wanna holler!
Which direction the struggle is coming from shouldn’t even be debated.

Young women struggle with anorexia. Is it because it’s wrong and unnatural to be curvy and full figured?
Or because of struggling with unrealistic and unnatural expectations of thinness?
Yet, no human being can be denied food and stay healthy.
Nor can a human being be denied intimacy, loving sexual relations, or the hope of a companion for life and expect to be happy and feeling secure, when all around them others ARE forming those bonds freely.

Nothing worse than being ‘denied’ (re: STARVED), while all around you others are feasting on what you need, and forcing you to watch them.

Change is possible. I guess if you can’t define change clearly, or possible clearly, all you have left is what the definition of “is” is. Who knew that Alan Chambers and Bill Clinton were sleeping in the same ideological bed?

Given AC credit for some kind of honesty. At least he doesn’t pretend that he is straight, he only acts straight, or as straight as a man who is actually gay can act.

His dishonesty lies not in how he chooses to live his life. His dishonesty lies in his failure to acknowledge his support of Exodus’s lies and political activism against gay people who do not accept Exodus’s views about either religious belief, G’s will, or homosexuality.

Like a certain other self-hating wanna-be-straight-but-ain’t writer I can think of, the animosity of the ex-gay industry is a mirror image of the animosity towards oneself as a gay man, and isj ustified on that basis.

As always, Transactional Analysis– I’m not OK, and you can’t be either lest either of us challenge my self-perceptions– explains and predicts it all.

For them, itâ€™s totally reasonable to expect us to date members of the opposite sex for whom we lack feeling or to just remain celibate altogether, while heterosexuals can have satisfying romantic and sexual lives.

I would like to ask how they would feel about their daughters dating a homo secretly trying to fake the hetero. That is a very real possibility. Relationships are difficult enough without the burden of one partner trying to fake it. It’s amazing how many men there are who have come out of fake marriages or are still in them while indulging in homo-sex on the side.

Surely a rational parent would see that society is better when homo men link up with each other rather than deceive their daughters. Or maybe faking it is okay when it’s with someone else’s daughter.

Why does Alan Chambersâ€™s message need to be draped in such a lot of tiresome verbiage? He should just state it plainly: it is possible, if you are gay, to lead a life of perpetual sexual abstinence, and although this is difficult, it may be easier if you allow yourself to be persuaded that it is what God demands of you, but it wonâ€™t change your sexual orientation. Anyone can understand that.

I suspect Alan’s message is complicated by his politics. While an honest message such as you propose would benefit those seeking to live according to a conservative Christian sexual ethic, it would not well serve those who seek to reduce, block, or eliminate civil equality for gay people and who use “they choose to stay gay” as their justification for discrimination.

Alan is every bit as much a political anti-gay activist as he is a minister to those seeking to not live as a gay person.

Yes, Timothy, I’m sure that youâ€™re right. This accounts, no doubt, for

(1) books with misleading titles such as â€œLeaving Homosexualityâ€ and

(2) statements like â€œFor thirty years, Exodus International has offered hope and help to people seeking freedom from homosexuality. We believe and we have seen in thousands of lives that this freedom is possibleâ€¦.â€; â€œyou don’t have to be gayâ€; and â€œWhat you are really asking is whether there is realistic hope for change for men and women who do not want their sexual orientation to be homosexual. And the answer to that is yes!â€

Itâ€™s no excuse for Exodus to plead that its message is being misunderstood, since that message has been deliberately framed in terms calculated to lead to such misunderstanding. In other words, itâ€™s deliberate misrepresentation.

In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.

When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.